


The Archivers Did What?!?!?!

by Awesome_Orange



Series: The Magnus Archives, but (almost) Everyone is Grossly Incompetent [2]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Every Character That I like is Alive, Fix-It, Gen, More tags to be added, New Employee at the Institute, POV Outsider, The Archival Employees are Weird, The Archive Team are Workplace Cryptids, The Rest of the Institute has no Idea What's Going On, because I say so, guy used as a gender neutral term
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:13:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26515765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Awesome_Orange/pseuds/Awesome_Orange
Summary: Kit is excited to start their new job at the Magnus Institute. Maybe they should have done more research into the place before applying because some of the employees are Weird and so is the history of the place. But now they're here, and they're here to stay, and, hey, at least they're not being misgendered.This takes place an unspecified amount of time after the end of the previous fic, aka during season 5 but if the eyepocalypse didn't happen.
Relationships: Basira Hussain/Alice "Daisy" Tonner (background), Georgie Barker/Melanie King (background), Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist/Martin Blackwood (background), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Sasha James/Tim Stoker (background)
Series: The Magnus Archives, but (almost) Everyone is Grossly Incompetent [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1922728
Comments: 22
Kudos: 76





	1. Dress Code Violations

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time publishing a multi-chapter fic, because I usually don't trust myself to finish things. However, this first chapter works pretty well on its own, so I won't feel too bad if I lose inspiration. Thanks for reading!

Kit left the office, making sure to close the door firmly behind them while still maintaining their composure. A quick look around the corridor showed it to be empty, so they let their façade slip for a moment. A large smile spread across their face and they fist pumped, letting out a small excited squeal. It had been a long journey of failed job interviews and workplace discrimination, but they finally had a job within their field of expertise, and they hadn’t even had to pretend to be cis to get it. They started walking down the corridor, still on cloud nine. They were so lost in thought that they didn’t notice someone rounding the corner and almost walked into them. The stranger looked equally startled at seeing another person there, staring at Kit like a deer caught in headlights. As they looked at each other in silence for a shocked moment Kit took in their dishevelled appearance. They didn’t look like they were dressed for work at a presidios Institute. They were wearing a bright patterned shirt and what seemed to be pyjama bottoms, their short brown hair was standing in all directions and they looked like they hadn’t slept in the last month or so.

“Who are you? I don’t recognise you!” The stranger’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“Oh, I’m new! The name’s Kit,” Kit responded, holding out their hand. Kit’s mood was somewhat dampened by the borderline horrified look on the other’s face at that.

“Did you sign any papers?” the stranger asked, sounding like they were trying very hard not to freak out.   
“Yes..?” Kit answered, feeling increasingly confused.

The stranger sighed heavily, sending a heavy glare in the direction of the closed office door. Then they looked Kit right in the eyes and put their hand on their arm as though for comfort.

“I’m so sorry!” And they actually sounded like they meant it. Before Kit could collect their thoughts and ask what the hell that had been about the stranger was off down the corridor again, leaving Kit to their confusion.

-*-*-

When Kit arrived to their first day as a researcher at the Magnus Institute, the incident from the day before was all but forgotten. They’d known the Institute had a bit of a reputation, but honestly, who wouldn’t want to work with reading horror stories? Yeah, it was weird that there was a whole institute dedicated to people telling stories and trying to pass them off as true, but rich people had been known to do weirder. It didn’t matter to Kit that what they would be researching wasn’t true, as long as they got payed for it.

Upon entering the building Kit was greeted by the same lovely receptionist as the day before, Rosie. She showed them to their office, wishing them good luck with their first day as she headed back to the front desk.

The office was large and held four desks. Kit squirmed uncomfortably under the curious gazes of the occupants of three of these. 

“Hey,” they held up a hand in a non-committal wave. “I’m Kit Drake, nice to meet you.”

“Hello Kit! Welcome!” said the person in the desk to the right, getting up to shake Kit’s hand. “I’m Sammy Yong, she/her pronouns, and this is Fred Aitken, he/him,” Sammy gestured to the person in the desk opposite hers, who nodded in greeting, and then to the person next to him, “and that’s Charlie Sangster…” she trailed off waiting for Charlie to finish.

“He/him today,” Charlie muttered, peering at Kit through his long bangs. Kit smiled at their new co-workers.

“Ah, I go by they/them,” they declared.

“Cool,” Sammy said in acknowledgement, “love the pin, by the way!”

Kit glanced down, noting the non-binary pride flag on the lapel of their jean jacket. They hadn’t meant to wear it to work the first day, but now they were glad they had.

“Thanks,” they smiled as a light blush dusted their cheeks, before awkwardly making their way over to the empty desk.

“Let me know if anything is unclear or you need help with anything,” Sammy said, settling back at her own desk. 

“Thank you!” 

-*-*-

Kit had gotten used to the work pretty quickly. It was very similar to their last research job, except a bit more exciting and a friendlier office environment. They were very engrossed in a riveting story about a living mannequin when someone tapped them on the shoulder. They jumped, letting out a frightened yelp.

“Sorry, sorry, it’s just me.” Sammy was grinning at them, holding her hands in front of her as though in surrender. “We were gonna head down to the cafeteria for lunch if you want to join us?”

Kit very much did want to join them.

“Oh, I don’t want to impose…” _Damn it, anxiety, this is why we can’t have nice things!_

“Nonsense!” Sammy exclaimed and basically pulled Kit out of their chair. They grumbled about it but was secretly grateful.

“So, think the Archivers will be there today?” Charlie asked as Kit followed the group to the canteen. 

“We haven’t seen them in a while, but I honestly don’t know if that increases or decreases the odds…” Fred responded thoughtfully. 

“I saw the Archivist himself when I was arriving,” Sammy contributed, “he was complaining to Rose about forgetting his bag at home!” In Kit’s opinion, Sammy sounded a bit unnecessarily happy about that fact. 

“And no bag means no lunch, so we’ll just have to hope they don’t decide to go out and eat.”

“That sure does increase the chances,” Charlie agreed, excited.

Kit was just about to ask what they were going on about when they arrived. The cafeteria was very big and looked a disconcerting amount like a school lunchroom. Kit hadn’t had the best experiences in their school lunchroom. They tried not to think about it. At least it wasn’t crowded, only a few groups of people were scattered throughout the room. Most of them looked as you’d think people who worked an office job would look. One group, however, caught Kit’s eye. They were, quite frankly, a mess. Among them Kit noticed the person who they’d run into after their job interview. Kit’s colleagues were whispering excitedly, also looking in the direction of the odd group.

“I’ll get us a table,” Charlie spoke up and headed off. The other three went to get the food.

-*-*-

They were sitting two tables away from the very weird people. Close enough that Kit could make them out in more detail, but far enough away that the other three still deemed it appropriate to gossip about them. 

When Kit had been hired, they’d been told there was a dress code. They’d been informed that an employee of the Magnus Institute should always dress appropriately to such a setting and been given a paper of more detailed guidelines. Some of these included: covering shoulders, knees and stomach at all times, not wearing unprofessional clothes such as sweatpants or workout attire, and not wearing clothes with holes in them (something that Kit had wondered why needed to be specified).

The people the others referred to as “the Archivers” were breaking all of these. There was the person from yesterday who was _clearly_ wearing pyjamas. They were sat with their arm around a person with flowing dark hair, wearing a tank top and shorts. Next to them sat the only person who didn’t seem to be guilty of any violations, wearing a denim jacket, jeans and a hijab. And lastly on that side of the table was a person in tracksuit pants and just a sports bra, their blond hair short cropped. Kit looked away pointedly.

Opposite them sat a person whose face was covered in scars. They were wearing a studded leather jacket and black, ripped skinny jeans, leaning on a person donned in a very worn and holey t-shirt. Kit could barely make out the words “What the Ghost?” across the chest. The last person at the table was by far the worst. They had bright purple hair and was wearing a crop top that read “Fuck you Elias!” in sequins above an equally glittery picture of a hand giving the finger.

They all looked like they hadn’t as much as looked at a bed for the last couple months.

Kit pulled their gaze away from the group and shot their desk neighbours an incredulous look. 

“Who…? What…?” they tried but didn’t quite manage to form a question.

“We call them the Archivers,” Sammy leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, “because they work in the Archives.”

“They’re like our workplace cryptids!” Charlie added.

“It’s like none of the rules apply to them,” Fred cut in, “but they always look moments from death, so I don’t envy them.”

“Why would someone end up like… like _that_ from working in an archive?!”

“No one knows,” Sammy said with a satisfied smirk, “but rumour has it that actual supernatural things go on down there.”

Kit raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

“Hey! I’m not saying I believe it,” she defended, “but the way they act… if you think that is bad, well, it’s nothing to the stuff they do when they think no one’s around.”

“Yeah,” Charlie concurred, “I once caught Tim and Sasha in the courtyard, pouring gasoline on a pile of books and then just light them on fire! That’s like the opposite of what archive staff is supposed to do!”

“I swear I’ve seen Melanie heading to Mr Bouchard’s office with a knife, before, on several separate occasions,” Fred added. “And one of those times I definitely heard her say, “I’m gonna kill that damn bastard!””

“And Jon used to be wanted for murder,” Sammy said in a way too happy tone, something Kit was starting to think was normal for her, “got cleared of all charges around the time Mr Bouchard went on that leave of absence…”

Kit’s head was spinning. They weren’t quite sure if they believed these stories, but if there were any people they would believe them about, it would be the Archivers.

“Okay, hold on,” Kit intervened before one of the others could tell another anecdote. “Who’s who? You keep saying these names, but keep in mind I don’t know who any of these people are.”

“Right, right,” Sammy agreed and turned in her chair so she could see the people they were talking about. 

“So, first off we got the Archivist himself. He’s the one in the leather jacket. His name is Jonathan Sims. I actually knew him a bit back when he worked in research, and well, let’s just say I never thought I’d see him in anything other than that sweater-blazer combo, right prim and proper, he was back then. Really changed his style after Mr Bouchard returned. I guess that sorta goes for all of them, but his change was the most drastic. Honestly, it’s like they all just woke up one day and decided they simply didn’t give a fuck anymore.

Next to him is Martin Blackwood. If you ever need anything from the Archives, he’s the one you want to find. He’s very nice and helpful. Just as done with the world as the rest of them, I think, but he never takes it out on other people. He made me tea once and it was the best tea I’ve ever had.

The one with the purple hair is Melanie King…” Kit cut her off.

“Wait! Melanie King? As in Melanie King from Ghost Hunt UK?!” Kit was a big fan of the channel and had been very disappointed when it ended.

“The very same,” Sammy confirmed with a self-satisfied smirk. “She started here a little over a year ago. She seems to hate it, though, so we think it’s just a matter of time before she quits. I’d say, “if she doesn’t get fired first” but I think that if Mr Bouchard was going to fire any of them, he would have done so by now…” The others at the table nodded agreement. “Across from her is… I think I’ve heard them call her Daisy? She’s a bit of a mystery– well, _even more_ of a mystery. I’m actually not even sure that she’s technically employed here. I’ve got a friend in HR and, apparently, she’s not on the personnel-list for the archives, nor, as far as she can tell, anywhere else for that matter, although that’s hard to know without a full name. You’d do best in watching out for her, I’m pretty sure she carries a gun.”

Kit stared at the mysterious woman, as though trying to make out a gun on her person, before realising that staring was rude, and they didn’t want to be rude to someone who might have a gun. They returned their gaze to their own table, scanning Charlie and Fred’s faces for confirmation. They both nodded solemnly.

“Next to her is Basira Hussain,” Sammy went on, disregarding Kit’s need for processing time. “Think she used to be a detective, or something. She first showed up back in 2016 to investigate that worm incident.”

“Worm incident?!” Kit interrupted again. A worm incident that needed police investigation sounded, quite frankly, like the worst. 

“Yeah, there was a worm infestation. Didn’t seem all that bad, just a bit gross, until one day the building is suddenly evacuated and apparently the Archives had gotten completely overrun with them. Not only that, they had gotten violent, started attacking people, trying to burrow into them, real nasty stuff. Everyone made it out okay, though, and the CO2 fire suppressant system took care of the worms. Lucky we had one of those really…”

Kit shuddered, trying to supress the images that story conjured in their mind.

“Actually,” Fred cut in, “I don’t think she was really investigating the worms, was she? She was investigating the murder. The worms were just “possibly a related incident but not the primary target of the investigation”. Although, it beats me how they’d have any connection.”

“I’m sorry,” Kit felt like they were starting to reach their limit for revelations, “did you just say, “the murder”?”

“Yeah, the first one,” Fred agreed. Kit contemplated the benefits of passing out on the spot. They settled for a weak “first?”

“You probably should have googled this place before starting here,” Sammy suggested. “Whether or not you actually believe in the supernatural, this place is weird. The first murder was the previous head archivist Gertrude Robinson. She was… eccentric, but she seemed nice enough the few times I talked to her. However, I’ve heard some nasty rumours about her, and not to speak ill of the dead, but if even half of them are true I’m not entirely sure she didn’t deserve what she got. I don’t know much about the second one, though, probably just some poor bloke who ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s the one Jon was wanted for for a bit. Don’t think they ever found out who did it.”

“I heard,” Charlie joined the conversation, “that Mr Bouchard killed them both and during that time he was away he was actually serving his prison sentence.”

The other three looked at him with various expressions ranging from horror (Kit) to incredulousness (Fred) to amusement (Sammy).

“Yeah, that’s like the only person _less_ likely to have done it than Sims,” Sammy got out as she was trying to suppress a fit of giggles. “Where did you even hear that?”

“The breakroom,” Charlie said confidently, “overheard Martin and Melanie talking – you know, that one time they were all using our breakroom because theirs had been flooded?”

“Hm, not sure if that makes me more or less inclined to believe it, to be honest…”  
Kit decided they’d been off topic for long enough, and they wanted to put a name to the person who’d talked to them the day before.

“Who’re the last two people?” they asked, directing the others’ attention back to the Archivers. 

“Timothy Stoker and Sasha James,” Sammy answered. “I knew Tim back when he worked in research, as well. He honestly hasn’t changed that much since then, used to always get in trouble for breaking the dress code or fraternizing with colleagues. Both of which he’s still doing. Just isn’t getting in trouble for it anymore.” Tim choose that exact moment to kiss Sasha on the mouth, perfectly illustrating the point. Kit looked away, embarrassed. “Sasha used to be in Artifact Storage,” Sammy continued, “I didn’t know her personally, but people say she should have gotten the position as archivist instead of Jon and that the only reason she didn’t is that Mr Bouchard is sexist. Not sure how much truth there is to it, but it sounds pretty par for the course.”

“That… that’s a lot to take in,” Kit noted faintly as she finished. After a moment they added, “One of them talked to me after my interview yesterday.” This was met with intrigued nods. “Tim, I think, he, um, seemed kinda upset? Asked if I’d signed the papers and when I said “yes” he just looked me in the eyes and said, “I’m sorry” like I’d signed my own death sentence and he had gotten there just too late to prevent it.”

Charlie snorted, “Yeah, that seems about right. I just don’t understand why they don’t quit, since they all seem to hate it so much.”

The other three murmured their agreement.

After that the conversation moved on to more mundane things and the rest of their lunch hour passed pleasantly enough. At least until the Archivers got up to leave. While most of them simply left two of them started heading over towards their table – Jonathan and Martin, Kit was pretty sure. They nudged Sammy, bringing her attention to the approaching pair. She turned excitedly back to Kit.

“Probably coming over to greet the new guy,” she said with a wink. 

The two stopped next to the table. Kit felt slightly intimidated by the guy in the leather jacket. They didn’t think being “greeted” by someone who dressed like that would be a good thing. 

“Kit Drake?” Jonathan said holding out his hand to shake. “Jonathan Sims, the Archivist.” Kit startled, both at being addressed by name by this virtual stranger and by the guy’s posh, British accent that thoroughly clashed with his attire. They hesitantly reached out and took the offered hand.

“Nice to meet you?” they didn’t mean for it to come out as a question, but they honestly weren’t sure it _was_ nice. 

“Tell m–“ the archivist started, but was interrupted by the guy standing next to him elbowing him in the side. He cleared his throat, “I mean, er, we just wanted to welcome you to the Institute, so welcome.” 

The guy Kit recalled as being named Martin held out his hand in turn.

“Yeah, welcome, I’m Martin, it’s nice to meet you!”

“You too,” Kit said, slightly more genuinely.

“Don’t go through any yellow doors,” said Jonathan. Kit was pretty sure they were being pranked at this point. 

“Huh?”

“Just make sure that whenever you go through a door, it isn’t yellow,” Jonathan repeated.

“Why?”

“Dangerous,” was the only answer.

“We gotta get back to work,” Martin remarked, starting to usher Jonathan away.

“If you ever want to make a statement you can come see me any time,” Jonathan said in lieu of a goodbye, then they were gone.

“What was that about?” Kit turned back to their friends – could they call them friends already?

“That’s the Archivers for you,” Sammy answered, “I’d follow his advice about the doors, though. Just in case.”

Kit had a hard time focusing on their work the rest of the day.


	2. The Evidence Board

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A conversation is overheard and Kit goes to the archives. (Not into the archives, just to the entrance)

Kit didn’t see any of the Archivers again for several days and the uneasy feeling the encounters had given them was starting to ease up and be replaced by curiosity. They were starting to understand the others’ fascination with the group. They were a far more interesting topic than normal office goss.

In these days there had also been a glaring absence of yellow doors, even though Kit had done plenty of “exploring” (read, getting lost on the way to the break room or printer). Were there even any yellow doors in the institute? It didn’t seem like the colour would match with the rest of the décor. Because of this the archivist’s warning faded to the back of Kit’s mind along with the unease.

As the week progressed Kit came to be of the opinion that the Archivers were weird, yes, but that the stories that the other employees told each other over their morning tea were widely exaggerated. Not that that made Kit any less keen to hear them. This mindset lasted until Thursday the week after they’d been hired.

“Tea break?” Sammy asked the room at large, putting aside a stack of papers. There was a general hum of agreement as the others finished up their current tasks. They headed over to the break room together.

The conversation soon turned to the Archivers, as it usually did. When Fred had finished up his anecdote about his latest archival encounter Kit spoke up, asking a question that had been nagging on them for a while.

“What are the archives like, anyway?” The other three eyed them quizzically. “I mean, with employees like that they can’t just be normal archives?”

Sammy made an “I don’t know” noise, and then didn’t elaborate. Silence hung over the table for several moments before Charlie took pity on them.

“We’ve never been. They restricted access a while back, but even before then it was uncommon for anyone other than the archival staff and statement-givers to go down there. I don’t think I know anyone personally who’s been down there since the last archivist.”

“Yeah, it’s all very secretive these days,” Fred agreed.

“If you’re curious you could always give a statement,” Sammy joked. Except, Kit’s curiosity had a tendency to get the better of them, and they were actually considering taking the suggestion seriously, not that they had any supernatural encounters to give a statement about…

“Maybe I will,” they replied, careful to keep the joking tone.

-*-*-

Later that day Kit was getting lost on their way back from the bathroom – why?! They’d made it there, how couldn’t they just follow the same path back?!?! – when they caught sight of Melanie further down the corridor. They stopped in their tracks, weighing the pros and cons of going up to her and say hi. They decided that they would regret it if they didn’t and started walking towards her but stopped again as they noticed she was on the phone. They didn’t mean to eavesdrop, they really didn’t, but if you’re standing close to someone it’s hard not to hear what they’re saying, and there are certain things that make you freeze on the spot if you hear them, rendering you unable to walk away and stop listening. That’s what happened to Kit.

“Yes, I know poking my eyes out is drastic…” Melanie was saying before trailing off to listen to the voice coming from the other end of the line. “Yes, I know I said I’d keep it as a last resort, but the plan is moving so slowly.” Pause. “Yeah, and we don’t even know that it’ll work.” A long pause. “Of course, I don’t _want_ to go blind, I just don’t know how much longer I can stand being trapped, you know.” Short pause “Mhm, they just keep showing up, was the Vast this week.” Longer pause. “Won’t do me much good if I’m dead, though, will it? I mean, if what Elias says is true this might…” – “Yeah, I know he’s a good for nothing liar, but we still don’t _know_. And I’ll be the first to say it’s worth the risk, but given the chance _not_ to take it don’t you think it’s better…” At this point Melanie turned around, noticing Kit who was staring at her in abject horror. She shot them a smile and a quick wave as she walked past them down the corridor, before returning to her phone call. “I’m telling you; I’ve thought it through, and I really think eye-gouging is the lesser of two evils here…” Then she disappeared around the corner.

Kit wasn’t sure how long they stood there staring in shock after Melanie. Apparently long enough for their friends to start to worry because they were startled out of it by Charlie’s timely arrival.

“There you are!” she called from behind Kit, making them spin around. “Woah, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I wish,” Kit replied weakly before shaking themself out of it. “Come on, let’s head back, Sammy and Fred are gonna want to hear this as well.”

-*-*-

Sammy and Fred looked up as the other two entered the office.

“What took you so long?” Sammy asked. “You got Charlie all worried.”

“I got lost on my way back,” Kit admitted, “but that’s not the important part.”

“Do tell!” Sammy prompted, as Kit paused while sitting back down at their desk.

“I came across Melanie in the hallway, and I overheard her talking on the phone,” they started. The others were listening with rapt attention. “And she was talking about…” they scrunched up their face in disgust as they recalled the topic, “gouging her eyes out.”

There was a moment of silence and shocked staring. Kit felt a bit self-conscious.

“Yeah,” they continued when no one else said anything, “she said something about a plan that was moving too slowly and that it was the lesser of two evils… oh, and something about being trapped.”

“Woah,” Charlie finally voiced the others’ thoughts. “That’s… drastic.”

“Yeah, that’s what she said.”

“Can you remember any other details?” Sammy asked. “For the Evidence Board.”

The Evidence Board was, contrary to its name, not a board. It was just a google document. But it was where the group collected all their evidence regarding the Archivers’ weird behaviour. Kit had been entrusted with access to the Board by the end of their first week at the institute. Now they were racking their brain for anything worth adding to it.

“She definitely mentioned Elias,” they remembered. “Could the plan be the one to murder him?”

“Totally,” Sammy agreed, “I’m adding it to the Board.”

Kit brought up the document in time to see Sammy write _Slow plan? Other people involved?_ under _Melanie’s Assassination of Elias,_ and then add a new heading which read _Eye Gouging Plans._

“I wonder what she meant by trapped,” Charlie commented. “Do you think she meant the institute? Maybe that’s why she still works here even though she hates it.”

“Probably,” Fred agreed, “but I don’t see how gouging her eyes out would help.”

Sammy wrote _To get out of the job?_ under _Eye Gouging Plans_.

“Right, I got the impression that if she didn’t gouge her eyes out her life would be in danger, so I don’t know what that’s about.” Saying that, Kit added _To save her life?_ at the bottom of the document.

“I wonder who she was talking to,” Sammy commented, “you think it was another Archiver?”

“Nah,” Charlie argued, “why would she be on the phone with them? It was probably someone outside of the institute.” She added _Outside Accomplice?_ under _Melanie’s Assassination of Elias._

They would probably have kept going, but Sammy’s phone rang, which reminded them all that they were at work and consequently had work to get back to.

-*-*-

Several days went by without a major incident, but at this point Kit was in way too deep to get distracted by a few days of inactivity. Although, they still weren’t completely sure they weren’t being pranked. But even with that possibility they were too curious not to investigate the matter further. Not that that was really going anywhere, since the Archivers all seemed to keep themselves to themselves. Kit didn’t see any of them until Wednesday, when they needed a statement that hadn’t been digitalised yet. Charlie had kindly showed them the way to the archives but had left Kit outside the door because of the “bad vibes” xe claimed emanated from inside.

They took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Which was not yellow, by the way. They waited for a while without a response, wondering if there wasn’t a better way to do this than to just go and knock. There really wasn’t any guarantee that anyone would hear them, was there? They tried again a little louder this time. Still nothing. They were just about to chicken out when they heard yelling from the other side of the door. It was muffled and seemed to be pretty far away as well, so Kit couldn’t make out any words, but it sounded stressed. Kind of like someone who’s about to get food out of the oven at the exact moment the pasta water is boiling over and the phone rings. The undistinguished yelling was followed by the sound of footsteps jogging closer to the door. They came to a stop and there was a pause long enough for Kit to become very nervous, and then the door opened, and Martin stepped out into the corridor, closing the door behind him. He didn’t seem to be breaking the dress code today, although the sweater he was wearing maybe didn’t _quite_ meet the goal of business casual, but he looked a bit dishevelled. Like he’d taken a moment to compose himself before opening the door, but not really having succeeded in hiding that fact that he was going through something. He blinked a few times, as though the light in the corridor had blinded him, before levelling his gaze on Kit.

“Hi, what can I do for you?” Martin asked with a somewhat strained smile.

“Oh, um,” Kit looked down at the piece of paper in their hand where they’d written down the number of the needed statement. “I, em, need a statement…”

“Ah, so, you’re not _giving_ a statement?”

“Um, no?” Kit felt very confused.

“Oh, you’re the new guy!” Martin exclaimed suddenly, “I thought I recognised you. Kit, right?”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“Alright, so here’s the thing, you’re coming at a bit of a bad time.” As if to emphasise his point another muffled yell was heard through the door at that exact moment, followed by a worryingly loud thump. “So, yeah, I could take the statement number and I’ll get back to you as soon as we have the situation under control.”

“Yeah, sure,” Kit said, wondering what kind of situation might arise in an archive. “Here.” They handed Martin the piece of paper.

“Alright then, I’ll get back to you tomorrow at the latest. It’s, um, it’s just a… power outage, so it shouldn’t take too long to deal with.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Speaking of, you don’t have, like, a torch or anything on you?”

“No, I’m afraid not…”

“That’s fine, I was just gonna head over to get some more from storage, the batteries run out so fast, you know…” Martin said as the two of them started heading down the corridor. “And they… I mean, it happened right when Jon was about to have a statement, too. Really caught us off guard.”

“How come the rest of the building isn’t effected? Does the archives run on a different grid?”

“Something like that, I suppose. Ah, this is me.” Martin stopped, gesturing to a nondescript closet door. “I’ll get back to you about the statement,” he said, gesturing with the piece of paper, and disappeared through the door. Kit stood and stared in confused silence for a moment. Just as they thought they had collected themself enough to go on with their day there was a crash from inside the storage room. A second later Martin’s head popped out from behind the door.

“Great, you’re still here! You think you could help me carry some of these?”

 _These_ turned out to be about 10 industrial grade flashlights. Kit wondered why they had that many torches, and even more why the Archivers required that many, since, as far as Kit knew, there were only seven people working in the archives and from what Martin had said it seemed like they already had at least a few. And as they picked up as many torches as they could carry (four, they were heavy, okay?! And arm strength wasn’t really their forte) they couldn’t help but ask.

“Why do you need so many, anyway?”

“It, um, it gets really dark down there?” It came out sounding more like a question, making Kit think that Martin was hiding something. Which, granted, he probably was, since he was an Archiver.

“Right…” Kit decided it best not to question the matter more at the moment. Martin seemed to be of the same opinion, as he hurried to change the subject.

“How are you liking the job so far? Anything… interesting happen?”

“It’s good,” Kit started awkwardly, never knowing how to answer those kinds of questions. “The statements are interesting to read.” They didn’t want to tell Martin that the most interesting thing about the job was gossiping about his division.

“Of course, of course,” Martin hummed, seemingly distracted. Then he snapped back into the conversation, turning his head in Kit’s direction. “This your first statement that hasn’t been digitalised?”

“Yeah,” they opened their mouth to elaborate, but realised they didn’t have anything else to say on the matter and closed it again.

Martin, similarly, seemed about to say something, but at that moment they arrived at the door to the archives. Immediately, Martin put his torches down on the floor, except for one, which he turned on before opening the door a crack.

“Someone come help me with these torches,” he yelled into the darkness, which was still prevalent despite the bright shine of the torch.

“Oh, I don’t mind taking them a bit farther,” Kit offered, as Martin once again closed the door, hoping to get a glimpse into the mysterious archives.

“That’s very kind of you, but only authorized personnel and statement givers are allowed in the archives, sorry.”

Not knowing what to say to that, Kit left them in awkward silence until the door opened again.

“Thank goodness, I can’t believe that fucking kid is…” The woman, who Kit recognised as Basira, trailed off as her eyes landed on Kit. “Who’s this?” she asked, somewhat accusatory, turning back to Martin.

“This is Kit, they helped me carry…” Martin began but Basira interrupted him.

“Yeah, I don’t care actually, let’s just go, it’s still really dark, but I think Jon’s about to take his statement.” As she said that last part she glanced over at Kit, as though she wanted to make sure they didn’t understand what she was talking about. They didn’t. “I’ll take these.” She took the torches Kit was holding, one by one, turning them on as she went. This seemed a bit excessive, as they all shone very brightly, unlike the faded light coming from the torch she was already carrying.

Once they had been relieved of their burden Kit started down the corridor. They started to think there was something to what Charlie had said about bad vibes. The archives were creepy, and Kit had had quite enough of them for today. Martin and Basira returned through the door, torches blazing, and Kit couldn’t quite shake the feeling that they wielded them like weapons.

-*-*-

“Got your statement?” Sammy asked once Kit had managed to find their way back to the office.

“No, they had a black out apparently, so they had to deal with that. Martin said he’d get back to me.”

“That’s weird,” Charlie piped up. “I’ve seen this place’s fuse box. The wiring’s ancient and the whole building is connected, so unless they changed the entire setup in the last couple of weeks a blackout should affect the rest of the building as well.”

“Yeah, I’m putting this on the Evidence Board,” Sammy responded after a moment of silence. “Anything else interesting about your interaction?”

“Well, when I arrived there was some yelling and weird thumping. In retrospect that was probably just someone bumping into something in the dark, though. Then Martin was going to get torches from a supply closet, and there were, like, 10 large, powerful torches, which seems like an excessive amount, but Martin still insisted on bringing all of them, and I had to help carry them…”

“Oh, come to think of it, I’ve seen weird amounts of torches in most supply closets, actually,” Charlie interrupted.

“Yeah,” Fred agreed, “I think they had a large shipment of them about a month ago, or so. It’s like the fire extinguishers all over again.”

“The fire extinguishers?” Kit inquired. They _had_ noticed that the Institute was well-stocked, but they had figured that was simply to be expected of a place that housed unique (flammable) documents.

“Mhm, it was about 2 years ago, they brought in insane numbers of fire extinguishers,” Sammy informed them. “I swear there were, like, twenty in every supply closet at one point, but apparently the Archivers kept using them up.”

“Of course, they were,” Kit deadpanned, wondering why they were even surprised at this point. “Anyway, then I offered to bring the torches into the archives, but he said that I wasn’t allowed. Basira came to help with the torches and she said something about a kid..? I don’t know what that was about, but she clearly hadn’t expected me to be there and didn’t want me to hear it, so I think it’s important.”

“Ah, the plot thickens,” Sammy commented as she took notes.


End file.
